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Thursday, February 28, 2013

28 Feb 2013, Kuala Lumpur – In Zurich, the TheWeekInChess.com website of Zurich Chess Challenge 2013 reported that Fabiano Caruana took the lead in the Zuerich Chess Classic after scoring a win against Viswanathan Anand in the first decisive game of the event. Anand was professional enough to attend the press conference and give brief comments but departed quickly clearly upset at his loss.

The game was a heavyweight Ruy Lopez in which Anand became frustrated by strong resistance and felt he was being outplayed. He sacrificed the exchange to try and change the course of events and had sufficient compensation but he started to doubt himself a bit and having made time control his 41st move Bg2 was careless allowing 41...Nc8 which caused his position to fall apart. 41.Ne5 was his first choice and the game would have continued.

Caruana is leading with 2.5 points from four rounds of play while Kramnik and Gelfand are at 2.0 points and Anand is at 1.5 points.

First, Women’s Rapid Open 2013 original date on 2 March 2013 at Selangor Youth and Cultural Complex, Seksyen 7, Shah Alam has been changed to 24 March 2013. Second, Blitz Open Chess 2013 on 3rd March 2013 at the Community Hall, Seksyen 7, Kota Damansara.

24 Feb 2013, Kuala Lumpur – The Universiti Putra Malaysia is organising two upcoming chess tournaments on the 16th March 2013, Saturday and 17th March 2013, Sunday. The announcement is in Manglish (Malaysian English – mixture of Bahasa Malaysia and English), so bear with us.

Registration: Registration shall be made on or before 14th March 2013(Thursday) through sms/fb name and event to person in charge. Any late registration shall be penalized with additional fee RM5. Fee can be made on the day of the tournament.

Saturday, February 23, 2013

23 February 2013, Kuala Lumpur – Today was the opening day of the new look Arthur Tan Chess Center under the new management at the Wilayah Complex, Kuala Lumpur. Thirty six players participated and was won by Yeoh Li Tian with a score of 14.5 points over 15 rounds of blitz play.

23 February 2013, Kuala Lumpur – In Iceland, the Reykjavik Open 2013 is ongoing. The official website says that The Reykjavik Open 2013 is being held for the 28th time from February 19th to February 27, 2012 in Harpa, the 28.000 sqm. concert hall. The 2013 tournament is expected to be very strong. The 2012 edition included for example the Women World Champion, Hou Yifan, and world no. 7 at that time, Fabiano Caruana, who won the tournament. In 2012 edition 198 players from 33 countries participated, including 26 grandmasters, 11 of which with a ELO rating of 2600 and higher. Total prizes in 2013 will be €15,000, including many special prizes for various ages and rating categories, in addition to the traditional top women prize.

Here is a game between the top favourites, GM Anish Giri of Netherlands against GM Ipatov which gave a winning game to Anish Giri in the fifth round of the Reykjavik Open 2013 tournament, Harpa, Iceland.

Friday, February 22, 2013

22 February 2013, Kuala Lumpur – For those intending to become a national arbiter in chess, your opportunity and your first step is here. Read the invitational (in Bahasa Malaysia) at UIAM below slated for 13-17 March 2013.

Monday, February 18, 2013

18 Feb 2013, Kuala Lumpur – In Sg Siput, Perak, the Felda Lasah Chess Open 2013 was held at the Secondary School RMLKT. Fifty eight players participated in this one-day rapid chess event. Ms Fatin Nadhirah bt Zainal emerged the champion of the FELDA LASAH Open 2013 by scoring 5.5 points and superior tie-break points. She beat the boys to the rostrum.

18 Feb 2013, Kuala Lumpur – Sergey Karjakin of Russia wins the coveted Aeroflot Open 2013 championship by beating Alexander Grischuk, 2-1, in a thrilling rapid final last night. The first two games ended in draws.

Chessdom.com reported that Sergey Karjakin defeated the fellow Russian Alexander Grischuk 2-1 in the final match of the Aeroflot Rapid to take the top prize of 16,000 USD. Grischuk earned 10,000 USD.

Karjakin is reigning World Rapid Champion, while Grischuk is reigning World Blitz Champion.

However, the third game that came out a winner for Karjakin. The Ruy Lopez opening transpired and follow the game exploits below:-

The Week In Chess reported that in the final Sergey Karjakin forced down Alexander Grischuk's flag in an Armageddon tie-break after both rapid games were drawn. This was the technique that Grischuk should followed in their recent and more controversial Piterenka Rapid BlitzArmageddon playoff. Here Karjakin switched from trying to win the position to forcing the flag down late on. He only had to avoid perpetual check or mate to win with 6 seconds vs Grischuk 1 second. The game ended up with the board in disarray and Grischuk playing the clock with one hand and the pieces the other which is at the least frowned upon. The fact was he was lost on the clock and Karjakin exploited that as you should if you're a professional.

To read more, please visit chessdom.com or click here. Or go to The Week In Chess or click here.

Saturday, February 16, 2013

16 Feb 2013, Kuala Lumpur – The Grand Final of the Aeroflot Chess Open 2013 begins today. Eight guest stars and eight winners qualifying competitions will be vying to become the new Aeroflot Open 2013 champion.

Final 16 Players:

Quarterfinalists – Last Eight:

Pairings of Quarterfinals (K.O. format):

Chessdom reported that a game that immediately catches the eye is Wang Hao –Dmitry Andreikin. The Nimzo-Indian used by the Russian invited Hao to close the position and avoid every possible pawn confrontation, so there were no pawn exchanges during the first 82(!!) moves. Just 6 moves later, Wang Hao proved that his passed h-pawn was stronger than Andreikin’s piece advantage and closed the game with decisive score.

16 Feb 2013, Kuala Lumpur – In the 1st Grenke Chess Classic being held in Baden-Baden, Germany, six of the world’s best chess players are playing. Among them are Anand Viswanathan of India and Fabiano Caruana of Italy.

The official website describes Grenke Classic - For the first time ever the Baden-Baden Chess Centre (Schachzentrum Baden-Baden) is hosting a Category 19 GM tournament, the Baden-Baden GRENKE Chess Classic. This event will continue the tradition of great chess tournaments that the well-known southern German spa town has established over the last two centuries.

Baden-Baden is also renowned in the chess world as the home of OSG Baden-Baden, the most successful German club since the 1990s. In the same period we set up the Baden-Baden Chess Centre to lay the foundations for making Baden-Baden into an important centre for the European chess community.

The main event of the chess fortnight will be the Baden-Baden GRENKE Chess Classic, a supertournament providing three top German players with the chance to face three established world class players on their own soil.

Thursday, February 14, 2013

14 Feb 2013, Kuala Lumpur – This year’s Aeroflot Open in Moscow has changed in format. The first phase of the tournament, the top 32 players in the 9 round Swiss System rapid will qualify to the next round. The second phase will comprise the 32 qualifiers playing two rapid games in a knock out format.

The final eight qualifiers of phase two will progress to Grand Final to play with eight top invited chess players and will play two games each in a knock-out format until two players are left to decide the champion of the tournament.

The early top seed, Fressinet Laurent, FIDE rapid rating of 2750, failed to qualify. Here is one game of round 6 of the qualifiers where Fressinet met Sjugirov Sanan of Russia and lost with the black pieces.

13 Feb 2013, Kuala Lumpur – Had this email from Najib Wahab sometime back, kept putting it back for some reason. So guys, if you have been itching to enter a chess club in Malaysia, here is the first. The others are associations.

A refreshing new look indeed!

Vibrant colours begin to fill up DATCC as the painting work on the wall almost completed. For this week, the contractor will be relocating the A/C units, fixing in the doors and prepare the new entrance to the centre. After Chinese New Year break, a bit of touching up here and there, and some cosmetic works and the new DATCC is ready to reopen its doors on 23rd February 2013.

CHESS CLASSES!!!! We will also be starting our chess classes 8 weeks term on the same day and look forward to having your children, nephews, nieces, friends, even parents as our students in the centre. Special rates are available for members at 20% discount that the normal rates, and other benefits for members. To join our classes, check out our brochures at www.chess-malaysia.com/DATClass.pdf

COME AND JOIN US ON OUR OPEN DAY - Light refreshments will be served and a 15 round blitz is one event that you would not want to miss.

13 Feb 2013, Kuala Lumpur – Here is an upcoming tournament in Perlis to be held in the month of May 2013.

Kindly be informed that in conjunction HRH Raja Perlis 70th birthday, Kilang Gula Felda Perlis Sdn Bhd will be organizing Gula Perlis Open Chess Challenge 2012 on 25th May 2013 at Hotel Putra Palace, Kangar, Perlis. This is a National Rated Event.

The tournament is offering a total cash prizes of RM5,420 and in addition to it there are four units of digital chess clock as lucky draw prizes. Certificates will be provided for the participants whom registered and perform payment before 1st May 2013.

To register, simply bank in the entry fees to CIMB account number 0902-0136677-52-6 (Syaifulzamani bin Ismail) and sms the participant's name, category, date and time of payment to 013-3939838.

The game started as a Caro-Kann opening but things turned topsy turvy for the grandmaster when young Giovanni unleashed 18. Rdg1!, an improvement over the passive 18.Qe2 which Barbosa used against Le Quang Liem in 2011. Play the game below to see how the game turn out for white. Giovanni Mejia played with the white pieces.

Monday, February 11, 2013

11 Feb 2013, Kuala Lumpur – In Kota Bahru, IM Mas Hafizulhelmi (pix above) won easily the Kelantan chess open 2013 held over two-days, 9-10 February 2013. He amassed an incredible 9/9 points! Obviously, IM Mas was in a league of his own in this tournament. In the sixth round, IM Mas defeated blogger, Naserov, on top board.

Abdul Haq Mohammad who was originally slated to play second seed, failed to arrive on time to the tournament hall on Saturday. It was reported that he was caught in the traffic jam coming to Kota Bahru and only arrived at 2 pm on Saturday. Abdul Haq decided to opt out of the tournament.